On Wednesday morning, Adobe delivered the eulogy for its multi-media
Flash platform for mobile, stating the company would no longer invest
resources in porting its once-indispensable cross-browser technology to
smartphones and tablets.

It’s a startling admission of failure from a company that vehemently
defended Flash and its mobile strategy in the face of Apple’s refusal to
allow it on the iPhone and iPad. Adobe even took on Steve Jobs in a war
of words over Flash’s viability as a mobile platform, all in the public
domain.

But the writing was on the wall for Flash years ago, and Adobe knew
it. With no Flash announcements to be heard at its Adobe Max conference
earlier this year and with the company slowly beefing up its toolkit of
Flash alternatives, Wednesday’s move is in step with Adobe’s broader
strategy of migrating its loyal Flash developer base to a new era, one
where mobile platforms reign supreme.

Gone are the days of new Android and BlackBerry devices bragging of
Flash compatibility as a way to trump superiority over iOS devices. And
gone are the days of seeing the web as a dominant platform for Flash
code, with Adobe pushing packaging tools like AIR to convert Flash code to native Android, Windows Phone or iOS languages.
And while the days of desktop Flash aren’t yet over, some see the death
throes of mobile Flash as a harbinger of things to come for PCs.